Elena Perry

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News >  Higher education

From Rome to D.C. to New York City, Gonzaga president Katia Passerini lands in Spokane with high hopes for school’s future amid higher ed challenges

UPDATED: Thu., Aug. 7, 2025

Standing in a huddle of students at a recent orientation event, Gonzaga University’s next president anticipated the arrival of her Kawasaki Z400 from New York.

News >  K-12 education

Incumbent and retired teacher challenger advance in Central Valley School Board primary

UPDATED: Tue., Sept. 23, 2025

The chairman of the Spokane County Republican Party on Tuesday lost his bid to join the Central Valley School Board.

News >  K-12 education

Five Central Valley schools will start the year with safer points of entry after “creative financing” of levy funds

Wed., July 30, 2025

Construction is well underway at Greenacres Middle School, Summit K-8 school, and Broadway, Progress and Liberty Lake elementaries for new secure entrance vestibules commonplace at modern schools. These projects come at a combined cost of around $2.8 million in taxes collected as part of the capital levy voters approved in February 2024.

News >  K-12 education

Department of Education releases billions in frozen grants to states as districts prepare school budgets

UPDATED: Fri., July 25, 2025

The Department of Education intends to release a hold on billions in grant funding to schools after a near monthslong pause in revenue for school districts, the department told states Friday.

News >  K-12 education

West Valley School Board split on transgender sports participation amid federal Title IX investigation

UPDATED: Wed., July 23, 2025

The West Valley School Board became the latest local voice to join the conversation around transgender athletes’ participation in school sports on Wednesday.

News >  K-12 education

Trump administration restores grants for after-school programs, while billions in K-12 funding remains frozen

Mon., July 21, 2025

“I was so excited I almost cried, just because of the state of our staff. They were freaking out, like ‘Am I going to have a job?,’” said Debra Raub, executive director of Communities in Schools of Northeast Washington, a recipient of millions in grant funding for programs at six schools in Spokane County.

News >  Higher education

Gonzaga President Katia Passerini talks changes, initial ideas and higher ed woes in first day leading the school

UPDATED: Wed., July 16, 2025

Her first day on the job, Gonzaga’s first female president Katia Passerini said she’s ready and eager to wade into the everchanging waters of higher education with the university’s mission as her compass.

News >  K-12 education

Spokane Public Schools board extends Superintendent Adam Swinyard’s contract with pay boost

Mon., July 14, 2025

The contract boosts Swinyard's pay to roughly $279,000, plus annual inflationary increases, up from his salary last year at $272,000.  

News >  K-12 education

Childcare programs at six county schools in limbo after Trump administration withholds billions in pre-approved education funding

UPDATED: Fri., July 18, 2025

The federal dollars for after-school activities are part of around $6 billion withheld in education grants nationwide that pay for childcare, adult literacy programs, English language learner education, staff training and migrant education.

News >  K-12 education

Central Valley schools to end summer a week early in exchange for more breaks in the school year in ‘balanced calendar’ initiative

UPDATED: Fri., July 4, 2025

As kids in most schools are soaking up the fading days of their summer break, sleeping in and playing in the sun, the bell will ring a week earlier for Central Valley kids compared to years past.

News >  Local Government

City leaders celebrate new courts at Underhill Park, which could be replicated at other parks if voters OK November levy

UPDATED: Thu., July 3, 2025

City officials, joined by eager kids, cut the ribbon on a new sport court at Underhill Park in the East Central neighborhood Thursday morning.

News >  K-12 education

Central Valley School District prepares for new school year with sweeping cell phone prohibition in schools

UPDATED: Tue., July 1, 2025

Central Valley students are the latest subject to a burgeoning trend of cellphone bans in schools.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Two slain Idaho firefighters identified; shooter’s father comments on ‘horrible’ killings

UPDATED: Tue., July 1, 2025

The suspect and victims in the brazen Sunday shooting deaths of two Idaho firefighters have been identified as a pair of battalion chiefs and a 20-year-old whose motivation remains a mystery to investigators.

News >  K-12 education

Incumbent in Central Valley School Board election faces former conservative ally, retired teacher in sole county school board primary

UPDATED: Thu., July 17, 2025

In the lone school board primary in Spokane County, the race includes the incumbent, her former ally and a retired teacher looking to promote compromise in an increasingly divisive political atmosphere.

News >  K-12 education

West Valley School Board rules Spanish teacher overstepped when he read aloud the ‘N-Word’ in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, does not reinstate teacher

UPDATED: Wed., June 25, 2025

The West Valley High School Spanish teacher who read aloud the N-Word in a passage from “To Kill a Mockingbird” will not return to the school, the school board ruled at a crowded Wednesday morning meeting.

News >  K-12 education

West Valley Spanish teacher continues to defend choice to read the ‘N-Word’ in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ at gathering on Juneteenth

UPDATED: Fri., June 20, 2025

The West Valley High School teacher facing contract nonrenewal for his use of the N-word in his Spanish class in April convened a group of supporters in Millwood Park Thursday to continue to defend his actions.

News >  K-12 education

Where kids can eat free in and around Spokane this summer

UPDATED: Tue., June 17, 2025

As the school year ends and with it the guarantee of breakfast and lunch for kids in Spokane, many schools become sites offering free meals for anyone 18 or younger.

News >  Higher education

SFCC President resigns for new role at a San Francisco community college

UPDATED: Tue., June 17, 2025

The president of Spokane Falls Community College resigned from her role after six years, the school announced Wednesday.

News >  K-12 education

Louder lunches, passing notes, less failure to cooperate: A look at the inaugural year of cellphone bans in Spokane Public Schools

Tue., June 17, 2025

It’s a wrap for the 2024-25 school year in Spokane Public Schools, as Tuesday is the last day of instruction in a year of phone-free classrooms in the district.

News >  K-12 education

A West Valley High School Spanish teacher lost his job after he read aloud the ‘N-word’ from “To Kill a Mockingbird’

UPDATED: Mon., June 16, 2025

A West Valley High School Spanish teacher lost his job after reading a passage from “To Kill a Mockingbird” that contained a racial slur.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Pepper-balls vs. tear gas: How 2020’s Black Lives Matter protest in Spokane compares to the immigration demonstration of 2025

UPDATED: Thu., June 12, 2025

Over the course of 10 hours in Spokane Wednesday, an impromptu display of civil disobedience became a showdown of smoke and hundreds of fleeing protesters, leading to more than 30 arrests outside an ICE facility near Riverfront Park.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

More than 30 arrested at immigration protest in Spokane sparked by arrest of 2 immigrants

UPDATED: Thu., June 12, 2025

Police used smoke cannisters and pepper balls in attempt to dispel the crowds. Former Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart was among those arrested

News >  K-12 education

High schoolers in Spokane Public Schools will now have to check out a laptop for school, rather than be issued one automatically

Wed., June 11, 2025

Spokane Public Schools will no longer automatically issue each high school student a personal laptop for school work, instead pivoting to a process in which students must request a computer to use for the year.

News >  K-12 education

Class of 2025 shows increase in kids involved in extracurriculars in line with Spokane Public Schools’ efforts to engage

Sun., June 8, 2025

Some of the colorful cords that adorn the hundreds of Spokane Public Schools’ graduates this year represent their involvement in one of the school district’s 1,024 unique activities.

Sports >  High school sports

Defending state track champion, transgender athlete Verónica Garcia wins second state title

UPDATED: Sat., May 31, 2025

TACOMA – Though the jeering follows Verónica Garcia when she races in track events, it hasn’t slowed her down.